Greeks learn about diversity

The theme of the evening was "boxes" -- as in the race and ethnicity check boxes found on many college applications and government forms. At a cultural diversity training session on Wednesday, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Program Coordinator Larry Moses spoke about the danger of trying to categorize people. "With boxes come this wonderful thing called stereotypes," Moses said. "The only thing you have to remember about stereotypes is that they're bullshit." The session, held at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house, was the second in a series of eight mandatory meetings for all new members of Greek organizations. This year is the second in a row that Moses is holding the sessions. "My objective is to give you as much training and information as possible while you're going through New Member Education," Moses told the group of AEPi and Alpha Chi Rho brothers and Chi Omega sisters. But Moses stayed down to earth during the session, taking a realistic approach to cultural awareness. "We're not going to walk out of here arm in arm singing 'Kumbaya,' 'We Are the World' and 'We Shall Overcome,'" Moses assured the Greeks. He then proceeded to talk about how society puts people in neat categories, using the check boxes on college applications as an example. Moses asked the Greeks to guess his own race, to show that people do not always fit in these "boxes." "Now it's time to play that game -- what am I?" Moses asked. He let the students shout out many possible answers -- including white, black, Asian, Jewish and Native American -- before explaining his mixed heritage. Moses explained that he is African American, Caucasian, Seminole and Cherokee. He also warned the students that many people have a preconceived notion of the Greek system as well. Although the all-Greek grade point average is higher than the campus-wide GPA, Moses said, Greeks are not generally thought of as good students. Instead, they are usually seen as party animals. He encouraged the students to "think outside of those boxes and let the world know how wonderful it is to be Greek." The Greeks reacted positively to Moses, enthusiastically shouting out suggestions and listening attentively to his message. "He was very powerful and got his point across," College freshman and AEPi pledge Jon Liou said. "It was very entertaining and fun." Also present at the event were three representatives of the University Honor Council, who spoke about plagiarism and cheating. They gave real examples of Penn students who had cheated -- without their real names -- and asked the Greeks to suggest punishments. The Honor Council members said that 63 percent of Penn students admit to cheating and encouraged the Greeks to be honest. "You have to do your work -- and your own work at that," said College sophomore Robert Silvers, a Tau Epsilon Phi brother and member of the Honor Council.